The Second Coming: Finality

About the Book

This is a novel about power, its use and misuse.  It is a story of personal relationships and how those relationships are shaped by events, and in turn shape events.  The novel is not science fiction, but fiction about science.

The major portion of the story takes place during eight months in the year 2002.  Several flashbacks acquaint the reader with necessary background material, characters and events.  An alien visit to Earth occurs on March 11, 2002.  During that benign visit the human genome is altered.  Soon, this becomes apparent to Dr. Seth Bauer, a leading scientist in a multinational research and development organization.  He puts the pieces of the puzzle together, and relays his findings to his superior.  A meeting is hastily arranged with Beverley Martin, President of the United States, to reveal the global threat.  If true and uncorrected, the aberrant DNA in the human genome will result in sterilization and eventual extinction of the human species.

The alien visit and subsequent alien message to the world community engenders meetings and communiques among world leaders.  President Martin of the United States competently directs the worldwide effort to counter the presumed alien threat, but is frustrated with her failure to communicate with the alien presence.  The message delivered to the global population is vague but portends trouble and possible punishment.  World scholars come forth with a partial interpretation of the message, but the full meaning of the 44-word message comes very late.  For several days in March 2002, global volcanic activity shakes the planet.  Is this Earths punishment?

A week or so after the alien visit, Seth Bauer is getting back to normal.  He finally realizes that advanced extraterrestrial life exists.  With a flawed mindset in their search for extraterrestrial intelligence, scientists assumed that intelligent life would be no more advanced than humans.  We expected a message, but not the messenger, one agency director tells the president.

Before leaving for the Chinese-Korean Federation on March 22nd to collect specimens for his research project, Seth comes across the address of a woman he dated at college.  He sends a letter to Jennifer Rand that will lead him into a tangled and torrid affair.

On March 29th, President Martin is touring California-Oregon to assess the volcanic damage to the continental United States.  In an attempt to recapture a memorable portion of her past, she leaves her entourage in Eugene, Oregon and helicopters to High View Lodge in McKenzie Bridge, Oregon.

The plot reverts to August 1991; the setting is High View Lodge.  Beverley Martin and Seth Bauer meet by chance and embark on a nine-day odyssey of love and passion.  Beverley and Seth are at career crossroads; she to pursue a political career in the South Dakota legislature, he toward teaching and research at the University of Wisconsin.  Their interlude ends when Seth leaves Beverleys cabin, not to be seen or heard from for eleven years.

Seth Bauer learns the reason for the alien visit when he discovers aberrant DNA in all his recent specimens.  He informs Mandrake Osborn, CEO of HYTEX, who then contacts the president for an immediate meeting.  Although Seth has followed Beverleys meteoric rise to the presidency, she does not know of his whereabouts.  On April 22nd when Mandrake Osborn introduces President Martin to, my Director of Science, Dr. Seth Bauer, Beverleys surprise is total.  The electricity in their handshake and the emotional fire in their eyes says to each that their mutual love has endured the past eleven years.  Now, Seth, who has begun an affair with Jennifer, has to decide how to break the triangle.

Five days after his group meeting, and then private meeting with Beverley in her private quarters at the White House, Seth invites Be

About the Author

Donald Beck was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1928. He served in the U.S. Army of Occupation in Germany. He was educated at Middlebury College, Vermont (BA) and Long Island University, New York (MS), and spent his professional career as an industrial microbiologist, retiring in 1993. His ideas, conceived in 1982, are brought forth in this his first novel.